New Things, Shiny Things, Important Things
by Tsuki no Rin
Summary: Oneshot -- as per usual. AlicexJasper: Alice has owned and disposed of many things throughout her lengthy lifetime. There are, however, items that she does keep after they've been used or have ceased to exist in "trendy" catalogues and magazines. R&R?


**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters.**

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**New Things, Shiny Things, Important Things**

Alice x Jasper

There came a time in everyone's life, where they refreshed their wardrobes and personal collections. Usually, this happened in spring as people cleaned out their homes and discarded unwanted items.

For Alice, this happened seasonally—sometimes even more frequently.

It's not like there was anything to stop her—the Cullens had the money and had the resources—it was just a wonder as to how much stuff she could accumulate and then simply deem unworthy of her prolonged affection and attention.

Many people have commented on Alice's closets; the most accurate description being, "There isn't a house big enough in the world to hold all the clothes Alice has accumulated." The entire Cullen family stood by this fact, but did not consider it a bad thing.

They always had something new and clean to wear, they didn't have to worry about keeping up the human appearance of laundering and other miniscule tasks—they simply told a few anecdotes about Alice's little habit and people didn't bother to question more; it was oddly believable and altogether too overwhelming for most people to properly grasp.

The new things never ended—Alice's favourite hobby was shopping—and shiny things seemed to simply attract the Cullens—new cars, electronics, and tools were staples of the family.

But there were things that Alice did not throw out. If one of the family members took a liking to an object or a piece of clothing, she let it be; seeing the repercussions of disposing of the object before it ever got to a garbage bag.

There were Carlisle's pictures, a set of antique bookcases that Esme had bought for Carlisle early in their relationship, Edward's stereo and CD collection, Rosalie's human wedding dress, and Emmett's hunting rifle that settled themselves on the list of many "untouchables" that her family outlined for her. After all, it wasn't like they never had room for the memorable items.

However, Alice and her husband have a more predictable list. It wasn't so much of a list, as a basic mutual acknowledgement throughout the whole house.

You simply didn't touch what was Alice and Jasper's.

But, you see, you have to understand that only Alice and Jasper's things were untouchable. Very rarely was anything saved from Alice's seasonal collections, and Jasper only kept whatever Alice wanted him to or what truly struck his fancy—mainly textbooks and scholarly items.

The Alice and Jasper items varied among trinkets, dried flowers, clothing, furniture, books, and pictures. There were pencils, pens, hairclips, belt buckles, cufflinks, umbrellas, and coffee mugs.

Every item held a story, a memory, an emotion, a thought—and they all pertained to the joint being known as Alice and Jasper.

There was a specially marked—completely unseen by human eyes and usually overlooked by much clearer vampire eyes—section of Alice's seemingly never-ending closet that was completely untouchable by anyone but the Whitlocks.

In this section was Alice's wedding dress, the dress she was wearing the day Jasper finally found her, the clip she wore in her hair on their first "human date", the completely clean shirt Jasper had first hunted an animal in, the baseball uniforms they had specially made, the clothes they wore the first night in their home in Canada, and the clothing they wore the first time they met the Cullens. There were more, of course. But they took up virtually no space in the large closet Alice had, but had an insurmountable amount of meaning in their weaved linens and fabrics.

These were the important things. The clothing, the trinkets, the miniscule "nothings". They were what made Alice and Jasper, what clarified their bond and brought it to existence. The important things.

So as Alice cleaned the family home for the third time that year, she paused over a rather plain loop of metal and smiled brightly.

"You're not throwing that out, are you?"

She looked up to see her husband smiling down at her, and watched as he reached forward and grabbed the simple ring—slipping it over her finger and placing his own ring-adorned hand next to hers.

This happened every time she cleaned; they'd both happen upon an old memory and come to share it with the other.

She looked at their hands and interlaced their fingers—her small ones with his larger ones—as their wedding rings caught the whispering remnants of sun that trickled in through the windows.

"Of course not."

They kissed then, the same way they always did during a moment such as this, and went back to cleaning; throwing out the new things, sorting through the shiny things, and always acknowledging the mutually important things that were rarely new and no longer shiny—the Alice and Jasper things.


End file.
